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QRP Streak (Updated for 5,000 days - April 12, 2008) Having just reached the 5,000 day mark in my streak and looking back on things, I wonder just what was the purpose of the streak. I should say what is the purpose of the streak, since it is not ending at 5,000 days by any means. As I write, in just about 45 minutes now, I will trod up to my bedroom shack, and work someone, probably in the Georgia QSO Party, to bring the streak to 5,001 days. The original purpose of the streak, as described here, was just to see how many consecutive days a QSO could be made with QRP, CW, and simple wire antennas. On August 5, 1994, I wasn't aware that I was starting something when I worked KG9N/C6A. In fact I didn't become aware until some time later when Eric (soon-to-become KB3BFQ) and I were discussing ham radio. Both of us are sports fans and in sports, there are many different kinds of streaks. For example, Joe DiMaggio's streak of 56 straight baseball games in which he got one or more hits, or Richard Petty's streak of winning 10 straight Winston Cup (at that time Grand National) stock car races. Both of those streaks are very unlikely to ever be broken, although that was also said of Lou Gehrig's streak of playing in 2130 straight baseball games. Of course a few years ago Cal Ripken broke that streak and extended it to 2632 games. But I'm digressing so let's get back on track. In our discussion of ham radio, Eric brought up the topic of streaks related to ham radio. He wondered how many consecutive days it would be possible to make a QSO with my minimal QRP setup. Minimal meaning 5 watts or less output power into simple wire antennas (dipole, long wire, random wire, and the like) - no gain antennas like beams, phased verticals, quads, etc. permitted. Remember at that time we were near the minimum of a sunspot cycle and QSO's were not all that easy to come by, even for higher powered stations. I decided I'd try to find out, so I looked in my log and went back to August 5, 1994 and the aforementioned KG9N/C6A QSO. That would have to be the starting point of the streak since I didn't have any QSO's on August 4, 1994, but I did each day since then. Today (4/12/08) I emailed Eric to say it's possible for at least 5,000 days. I found out in his reply that he is wanting to become active in ham radio again after he got away from it while finishing school, getting married, and having a baby boy, Perry. That delighted me especially since his interest is strictly in CW, and we'll have another young (fairly young - HI) CW ham on the bands to work. Over the years of the streak, a secondary and more important purpose came to be. The streak showed, and continues to show, that such a minimal setup as I use really does work, despite the skepticism of some hams who have never tried it. It has encouraged several (many?) hams along the way to get back into ham radio, and especially back to CW since that is the most efficient of all modes. It shows that despite living in a small apartment, an antenna restricted neighborhood, or some other situation where a KW and big antennas are an impossibility, they could get on the air and be successful by using CW with a minimal setup similar to mine. That is the most personally satisfying aspect of the streak for me. I'm delighted it has brought happiness to so many people. Until September 1, 1999 I used a homebrew 5 watt CW transmitter of my own design and an ICOM R-71A receiver. On that day I purchased a Kenwood TS-570D transceiver which I operate only at 5 watts output and only on CW. I'm not even sure where the microphone for the rig is since I put it away somewhere the day I got the 570. My antennas consist of a 110 foot end fed random wire for 160-30M (mostly in my attic), a 20M dipole (in my attic), a 15M vertical dipole (on the side of my house) also used for 17 and 12M, and a 10M sloping dipole (on my porch roof). The four antennas have been and are used with a homebrew antenna coupler and/or the Kenwood internal antenna coupler for all my QSO's. Although some days it was hard and took some time to find a QSO, the streak continued on and on. When my friend Mike, AB5XP answered my 30M CQ on April 30, 1997, that brought the streak to 1000 consecutive days. Conditions were now getting better and better as the sunspots were starting to increase, and more and more DX QSO's started showing up in my log. See the statistics at the bottom of this page for the percentage of DX by years. By the time my streak reached 2000 days on January 25, 2000 when Bill, N4QA answered my 40M CQ, the bands were really alive and hopping. In fact the streak took on an extra aspect around that time. That same day marked 64 straight days I had worked at least one DX station. The DX streak would continue for 17 more days, then I missed working DX on February 12, 2000, but picked up the streak again on the 13th and that lasted 154 days. Both segments of that streak were ended by severe geomagnetic storms. I won't say more about the DX streaks here since they are covered in detail in a separate report. My interest in ham radio suffered a blow early in 2001 when my mother passed away after a six week battle in the hospital and a nursing home. She was 95 years old, and we'd lived together for all my life. For the past several years she had been in good health, but needed me at home to take care of her, which I gladly did. I did not want to see her spend her last years in some uncaring nursing home. So her passing affected me quite a bit. One of the things that happened was that I lost some of my interest in hamming. I don't really know why, unless it was because my mom always supported my hobby and she loved looking at all the DX QSL cards I would receive, especially those from her native Italy. For the rest of 2001 and into early 2002 I did not enter as many contests as usual nor did I chase as much DX as before. However the streak still continued during all that time. I started to get back into the bigger contests in earnest at the end of 2001 and set personal records in such contests as the RSGB 10/15M, Ukraine DX, OK/OM, ARRL 10M. Then in early 2002 I really hit some of the bigger contests quite hard. In the January NAQP I had a rate of 51.4 for the full 10 hours of the contest. The February ARRL DX contest saw me break the 600 QSO barrier for the first time ever with 633 QSO's (and every one passed the ARRL log checking procedure of which I am proud). I continued to set personal best marks in many other contests in 2002 even though I still was not entering as many nor putting in as many hours as I once did. Another goal was reached during the streak when I worked J45RW for my QRP country # 200 on July 27, 2002. New countries had been coming very slowly and continue to do so since I still don't devote all that much time to searching the bands for new ones. However I'm proud to have made it to 200 with just 5 watts and simple wire antennas. When I worked a whole bunch of you starting with AA1SP on October 21, 2002, that extended the streak to 3000 consecutive days. Now I set my sights on making it to 10 years, and on August 4, 2004 I reached that goal. Helping me complete the ten years with QSO's on that day were: K4IR, N4CU, NB6M/MM, WE8UP, WD9F, WB5BRD, KS4OY, VE3AIJ, VA3RE, N4FI, & K3DQ. Thanks to all of you. About a month before the 10 year point of the streak I got a request from a reporter for the local newspaper to let him write a story about my ham radio activities for the paper. As with the start of the streak, I didn't realize that this event would also be the start of something. It turned out the reporter was also a ham radio operator. I had read his articles in the paper, but never knew he was a ham until we talked about the article. I'm talking about Tom Mitchell, KB3LFC (now WY3H). Well, as the proverbial saying goes, to make a long story short, Tom and I became fast friends since his interest in ham radio was also CW, QRP, and simple wire antennas. He had been inactive and was just getting back into ham radio about that time. That was why we had never worked each other on the air despite our similar interests. Not too long after the article was published, I again was contacted by Tom. This time he asked me if I was interested in helping him start up a new QRP club. To be honest, and Tom knows it, I thought there were too many QRP clubs already. However Tom said this would be a QRP CW club and would place emphasis on minimal QRP operation, i.e. using simple wire antennas and only using CW, no other modes. Well, that immediately peaked my interest and I said I certainly would be interested if the club stuck to those ideals. He agreed it would, and the North American QRP CW Club (NAQCC) was born in October of 2004. Tom was the President, and I assumed the post of VP. Although my duties with the club which included being webmaster for the club website, processing awards and contest results, etc. took away from my on air time, the club activities encouraged me to get on the air more. I felt the club, dubbed "The QRP Club With A Difference" was doing things that other QRP clubs were not, and I really enjoyed the club awards program, the monthly sprints, and something I think is unique, the monthly Challenges. An example of a Challenge is making 30 QSO's on 30 meters in a month. Another is to 'get' all 26 letters of the alphabet from the call letters of stations you work. Each month we try to come up with something different but all have the bottom line of just trying to get more CW activity on the bands to help preserve this wonderful mode. That's all I'm going to say about the club here. If I've peaked your curiousity and you want to know more, visit the club website at http://www.usatek.net/~yoel/. Shortly (18 days) before the 11 year mark was reached, I hit 4,000 consecutive days. I had planned to work as many stations as possible that day, but the death of a cousin who was very dear to me that very same day changed those plans. I did work VE1XW, HI8RV, WZ2T, KC0TLN, and NB9D on the 4,000th day, but I would have liked to have worked a lot more of you since so many have expressed such an interest in the streak and followed it closely over the years. During the 12th year of the streak, my activities consisted mostly of just continuing the streak, some contesting, the aforementioned NAQCC activities, and a little DXing when conditions permitted. My DX total remained at 204 as limited time and poor conditions kept me from working any new ones. I've never done anything special to ensure the continuation of the streak. By that I mean I didn't check into any nets along the way. I made no schedules with anyone specifically to continue the streak. I didn't use packet spotting. I simply got on the air each day and called CQ, answered someone's CQ, or on contest weekends got into the contests. I never signed /QRP after my call to attract attention to the fact I was using QRP. All contacts, of course, were made on CW since that is the only mode I operate here. I don't know if it could have been done on any other mode - at least it wouldn't have been as easy. I never came seriously close to missing a day, although on some days it took a lot of listening and/or calling CQ before a contact came along. Most of the time I got that first QSO of the day during the first hour of the day. The 0100Z hour provided the second highest total. The latest time to get that first QSO was 2311Z back on 14 Feb 1995 when I worked EA8/DJ1OT on 30M. That was the only first QSO that came in the 2300Z hour. 12 came in the 2200Z hour. Now on to some statistics for the first 5,000 days of the streak. Notice I said the 'first 5,000 days' which means I have no intention of ending the streak just yet. It will continue to go on until some unforseen circumstance brings it to an end. First a couple of notes on the stats. There are some minor discrepancies in the totals caused mainly by my not being sure about the location of /MM stations. Also Aves Island was worked before the streak started so my overall DX entity total is 205, but 204 in the streak. Significant number of days in the streak and who I worked those days start off the stats: Day Date Worked (band)
0001 08/05/94 - KG9N/C6A (30,40), FS/DL8WAA (40)
0365 (1 yr) 08/04/95 - VE3LOE/3, N5ION (17), KG8IT (40), W8RJW (30)
0500 12/17/95 - K4HPP, KE4AUN (30), VF5AAD (17), NG3H (160)
0731 (2 yrs) 08/04/96 - 68 stations in NAQP contest
1000 04/30/97 - AB5XP (30)
1096 (3 yrs) 08/04/97 - KB0RGU (40), K1AF (30)
1461 (4 yrs) 08/04/98 - KB0JTS (20)
1500 09/12/98 - W2BJ (30)
1826 (5 yrs) 08/04/99 - WN9U (40), 9A0DX (20)
2000 01/25/00 - WA3WSJ, N3AO (80), N6NF (15)
2192 (6 yrs) 08/04/00 - K4PTU (40), 6W/DK8YY (20)
2500 06/08/01 - AA3CT (40)
2557 (7 yrs) 08/04/01 - WJ4P, IT9ESW (30)
2922 (8 yrs) 08/04/02 - 45 stations in NAQP contest
3000 10/21/02 - 29 stations (various)
3287 (9 yrs) 08/04/03 - KN4PR (30)
3500 03/04/04 - N1PVP (40)
3653 (10 yrs) 08/04/04 - 11 stations (20,30,&40)
4000 07/17/05 - VE1XW, HI8RV, WZ2T, KC0TLN, and NB9D
4018 (11 yrs) 08/04/05 - VE3GXU, KB3LFC
4383 (12 yrs) 08/04/06 - WA2VQV, VA3RKM, VA3CBE, W3PM, and KB2JWD
4500 11/29/06 - N2JJE (160)
4748 (13 yrs) 08/04/07 - 83 stations in NAQP contest
5000 04/12/08 - WA8REI, W2JEK, W9ILF, WB4YZA, KB9BIT,
W4HAY, N1WSD, N0NBD
Total number of QSO's: 47,549
Contest QSO's: 38,582
Other QSO's: 8,967
USA / VE QSO's: 34,129
DX QSO's: 13,420
Most QSO's by Date:
11/7/99 - 416 (SS)
2/16/02 - 370 (ARRL DX)
2/17/01 - 342 (ARRL DX)
11/2/97 - 341 (SS)
11/5/95 - 341 (SS)
States worked: All 50
Most often worked:
Pennsylvania - 2,858
California - 2,008
Wisconsin - 1,879
Illinois - 1,740
Texas - 1,514
Least often worked:
Wyoming - 48
North Dakota - 57
Alaska - 71
Nebraska - 73
Idaho - 73
Montana - 74
QSO's by Continent:
Africa - 339
Antarctica - 13
Asia - 349
Europe - 9,282
North America - 36,413
Oceania - 154
South America - 992
Countries worked: 204
Most often worked of the 204 (excluding W/VE):
Germany - 1,135
Italy - 641
England - 629
Hungary - 588
Czech Republic - 555
Top Countries by Continent:
AF - Canary Is. - 108
AS - Japan - 170
EU - Germany - 1,135
NA - Puerto Rico - 222
OC - Hawaii - 96
SA - Aruba - 199
CQ Zones worked: 36 (need 22, 24, 26, 28)
Most often worked CQ Zones:
4 - 16,400
5 - 14,430
15 - 4,531
14 - 3,849
3 - 3,318
8 - 1,657
Percent of QSO's that were DX by year:
1994 - 10.7
1995 - 9.3
1996 - 5.9
1997 - 13.6
1998 - 30.4
1999 - 37.0
2000 - 54.4
2001 - 55.3
2002 - 50.0
2003 - 31.3
2004 - 29.9
2005 - 19.2
2006 - 15.0
2007 - 12.0
QSO's by Band:
160 - 3,154
80 - 7,649
40 - 12,407
30 - 2,473
20 - 9,634
17 - 459
15 - 6,193
12 - 234
10 - 5,346
QSO's with 5 watts: 46,874
QSO's with less than 5 watts: 675
QSO's with less than 1 watt: 300
QSO's with less than 1/2 watt: 57
Highlights of the Streak:
1994:
Aug 5 First day of the streak - worked KG9N/C6A 30M
Aug 6 First USA QSO after 5 DX QSO's - AA9JY
Aug 6 First Europe - UR4QBL 40M
Aug 18 First South America - OA4FW 30M
Aug 31 Country # 25 worked - YV4DDT 40M
Sep 9 First Africa - ZD8OK 30M
Oct 20 Country # 50 worked - HB0/HB9NL 15M
Dec 23 KB3BFQ received his ham ticket - he was the one who suggested
the streak idea to me.
Dec 28 Worked KB3BFQ on 10M - My first 10M QSO ever
1995:
Jan 16 First of 17 straight days with one or more DX QSO's
Jan 18 First Oceania - KH6AK 40M
Feb 14 34 minute rag chew with EA8/DJ1OT
Feb 15 Worked K3KLC in MD on 160M - My first 160M QSO ever
Feb 17 Country # 75 worked - 9A3MA 40M
Jun 28 Worked K0OSW in MN on 12M - My first 12M QSO ever
Jul 30 First Asia and Country # 100 worked - RW0A 20M
1996:
Jan 24 Worked P49I with 70 mW on 30M
Mar 16 Worked EA6BH with 500 mW on 30M
Apr 6 First Antarctica - EM1KA 30M
May 10 VK6HQ answered my CQ on 30M - most distant QSO of the streak
Jun 12 Worked W4HG in NC on 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 30, 40, & 80 meters
in 31 minutes
Nov 24 Solar Flux rises to 100 for the first time during the streak
Nov 24 JA3ZOH & JH0ZHQ show up in my log - My first Japanese QSO's
1997:
May 24 Country # 120 worked - RW2F 20M
Oct 6 Worked RA9CKQ to complete 15M WAC
Nov 2 Near clean sweep in the SS - missed YT & NE
Nov 30 Worked WAC in a single day within 5h 22m
1998:
Jan 29 Country # 130 worked - ER10A 15M
May 1 Country # 140 worked - 4Z5AX 20M
Nov 28 Country # 150 worked - 5V7A 20M
1999:
Jun 19 VK6HQ again answers my 30M CQ
Aug 26 Country # 160 worked - NH6D/KH3 30M
Sep 1 Purchased a Kenwood TS-570D after many years of wanting a xcvr
Sep 1 First QSO with the Kenwood was KO1C on 40M
Nov 4 Worked EA8CN to complete 17M WAC
Nov 7 Busiest day with 416 QSO's
Nov 7 537 QSO's in the SS - My most QSO's ever in a test
Nov 23 First of 81 straight days with some DX worked
Nov 27 Busiest DX day with 273 DX QSO's
Nov 27 Worked CT3BX to complete 10M WAC
Nov 27 Worked 25 JA's in a couple hours
Nov 28 500 QSO's in the CQWW DX test - Best DX test ever
Nov 28 6V6U on 15M is country # 100 with my new Kenwood
Nov 30 Worked 5C8M to complete 12M WAC
2000:
Jan 1 Worked my friend of 30+ years, VA3RJ for first QSO of the 2000's
Feb 11 UA0ABK worked - 81 straight days with a DX QSO
Feb 13 After missing DX on the 12th, started a new DX streak with KG4KO
Feb 19-20 512 DX QSO's in the ARRL DX test
Mar 4 JT1DA is my first zone 23 QSO
Mar 18 Worked country # 100 in the year 2000 - VP2VI
Mar 21 Made 23 DX QSO's including new countries EX2X and SV0LK
Apr 21 WAC in 6 straight QSO's on 5 bands - RV9CP-20M, VK4XA-17M,
UX1MM-10M, W5UJA-15M, YV6AZC-12M, and EA8ALP-20M
May 22 100th straight day with a DX QSO - RA2FBC + others
Jun 20 First zone 37 - 5H3RK - country #181 overall
Jul 10 TT8JLB is country #184 in the streak
Jul 15 154th straight day with a DX QSO - FP/AI5P
Nov 25 A61AJ in the CQWW DX test - 190 countries worked overall
2001:
Jan 1 Lots of fun as usual in the ARRL SKN event
Jan 13 457 QSO's in the NAQP - best contest rate at 46.9/hr
Feb 17 558 QSO's in the ARRL DX test - most QSO's ever in a test
Feb 20 Worked D68C for country #193 overall
2002:
Jan 12 514 QSO's in the NAQP - best contest rate at 51.4/hr
Feb 16 633 QSO's in the ARRL DX test - most QSO's ever in a test
May 5 IK2PFL is DX QSO #10,000 in streak
Jul 27 Worked J45RW for QRP country #200 overall (199 in streak)
Nov 24 Worked S9MX for QRP country #201
Dec 4 Worked 4J6ZZ for QRP country #202 (also #150 on 15M)
Dec 21 OM3RM is DX QSO #11,000 in streak
2003:
Jan 11 Second year in a row with a 51+ hourly rate in the NAQP
Feb 1 Approximate beginning of a major decline in conditions from
the superb propagation of the past 3-4 years
Feb 16 DF0LI is my QSO #1,000 with Germany in the streak
Nov 29-30 Worked the CQWW DX contest portable from my cousin's house.
Nov 30 Worked SU9NC for country #203 overall (202 in streak)
Dec 27 Best ever RAC contest with 222 QSO's
2004:
Jan 10 Declining conditions show up with 109 less QSO's in NAQP
Jan 25 VE3PN is QSO #39,000 in streak
Feb 21-22 367 QSO's in ARRL DX - down from 633 just 2 years ago
Feb 22 F5RRS is DX QSO #12,000 in streak
Mar 14 Best ever WIQP with 143 QSO's
Aug 4 The streak reaches 10 complete years
Sep 18 WD5GXO is QSO #40,000 in streak
2005:
Feb 8 K5PTC is QSO #41,000 in streak
May 28 4L8A in Georgia make 204 DX entities worked (203 in streak)
May 30 Worked Hoot Owl Sprint in field with KB3LFC
Jul 17 The streak reaches 4,000 days
Aug 2 W2LJ is QSO #42,000 in streak
Aug 4 The streak reaches 11 complete years
Dec 26 KU3G is QSO #43,000 in streak
2006:
May 29 Second time in the field in the streak - Hoot Owl Sprint w/ KB3LFC
Jun 2 For the third time VK6AU (ex-VK6HQ) answers my 30M CQ
Jun 14 W9FNB is QSO #44,000 in streak
Aug 4 The streak reaches 12 complete years
Aug 25 Have a QSO with WA8REI 40 years to the day after our first QSO
Dec 16 4J6ZZ's QSL card makes 198 countries verified
2007:
Jan 13 K4RO is QSO #45,000 in streak
Feb 18 5Z4/9A3A in country #204 in streak (205 overall)
Jul 14 KU1CW is QSO #46,000 in streak
Aug 2 5Z4/9A3A's QSL card makes 199 countries verified
Aug 4 The streak reaches 13 complete years
Oct 10 I win my 14th NAQCC sprint - SWA category
Dec 2 W4DR is QSO #47,000 in streak
2008:
Jan 28 Worked W0BH in Kansas to complete Kansas all bands 160-10M
Feb 6 OH0R's QSL card makes 100 countries verified on 40 meters
Apr 3 The 45th anniversary of my Novice ticket - KN3WWP
Apr 12 The streak reaches 5,000 days
To reiterate, the purpose of my giving all this information about my streak is simply to show anyone who reads this that QRP does work well, even with simple wire antennas and a less than average location. If you are in a situation where you can't use high power or put up huge antennas, maybe my results will encourage you to get on the air with a simple setup and give it a try. I guarantee that you will succeed and be able to enjoy the finest of all hobbies. Give it a try - you may never go QRO again. |